The Forest of Vanishing Stars

As she leads the group to the swamp, Yona thinks of Zus. His brother, Chaim, tells her that Zus cares for her, but he is haunted by his experiences at the hands of the Germans, who tied him to a chair and forced him to watch as they shot his wife and child. Not far from the swamp, they hear shots and Germans calling for Jews to come out. Yona realizes that the Germans don’t really know the group is there; they’re simply posturing.

As the Germans move away, members of the group take turns reciting Psalm 23. They reach the swamp but must wade through neck-high water to reach the island Yona is seeking. Once safe on solid ground, they fall asleep. Just before dawn, Yona is awakened by a woman screaming.

One of the newcomers to the group is giving birth. Conditions are difficult, but the mother and child survive. In the meantime, the group is struggling to find food, and the water is making people sick. Two group members, Rosalia and Chaim, set out to the nearest town for supplies.

When they return, they report that the Germans departed without finding either the Bielski or Zorin groups, although they torched many villages in retaliation. Yona decides that it’s safe for the group to return to their main camp. As they approach, the baby cries, and Zus emerges from the forest. He embraces Yona and says his group lost four people, including Aleksander, but gained some newcomers—young people with guns and plenty of anger toward the Germans. Zus and Yona kiss.

As the group settles into the camp again, they face a dwindling food supply and the approaching winter. Two of the newcomers float the idea of ambushing a German supply convoy for food and weapons. Yona thinks this is too risky, but others see it as a way of taking revenge for all their suffering.

As the group debates doing this, Rosalia reminds Yona that she is once again an outsider who has not shared these experiences. The group decides to undertake the raid, led by Zus. Before they leave, Yona tells Zus that she learned the Germans were coming into the woods from her father, a high-ranking Nazi officer. She wonders if she was born to bring terrible things, but Zus says all that matters is who she is now. Yona and Zus make love, each embracing the other’s true selves.

The group prepares to attack a German convoy. Rosalia, a woman who lost her family to the Germans, says that they stand for everyone who is gone. People call out the names of their lost family members and call on the group to return safely. When Zus, Yona, and the others encounter the convoy, Rosalia fires on the first vehicle carrying several soldiers, so a firefight ensues. When it ends, the Germans are all dead, and so is Rosalia. The group gathers all the food and weaponry they can carry. As they return to camp, Zus recites the mourner’s kaddish for Rosalia.

With supplies from the convoy and forays into surrounding towns, the group prepares for another winter in the forest. Yona and Zus come closer together and move into the same zemlianka. One night before Hanukkah, the group comes together to sing Hebrew songs. It should be joyful, but Yona grieves for the losses they’ve seen. Later, Yona wakes to find Zus gone. She finds him alone in the forest, crying.

He says that day would have been his daughter’s sixth birthday, and he still grieves for his family. Although he loves Yona, going forward with her means leaving his family behind. He runs from her, and she sits alone in the night, wondering what will happen to them. Toward dawn, she hears footsteps. She reaches for her knife and hears Zus call her name. He apologizes, and as they talk, a man crashes through the trees, aiming a pistol at Zus’s heart: her father, Siegfried Juttner.

Juttner is unkempt and unshaven, eyes wild and mad. He says he has been looking for her because she humiliated him by leaving the village. He intends to bring her home and show that she belongs to him. Juttner insults Zus, calling him an animal and a “filthy Jewish dog” (347), but Yona says she loves him.

Juttner reveals the final secret of Yona’s identity: Her mother was part Jewish. Now he intends to kill Zus to “save” her. As Zus backs away, Juttner takes aim, but Yona launches herself between the two men just as he fires and is shot. As she lies bleeding, she knows that Juttner will still kill Zus, so as he bends over her, she takes her knife and slices his arm from wrist to elbow. Zus picks her up and carries her away.

Months have passed. The war is over, and the Jewish refugees are emerging from the forests of Poland and Belorussia to a vastly different world. Yona’s group has grown, and its members are scattering, seeking new lives in other places. Some stayed behind to rebuild their homes. All are linked by their lives in the forest and the woman who helped them survive, who remained in the forest of Nalibocka with her beloved Zus and had two children there. She died in her beloved forest at the age of 100, just as Jerusza had predicted, many years before.